50 vendors turn on TMA officials

BAHAWALPUR:

Dozens of shopkeepers attacked a Town Municipal Authority team during a crackdown against encroachments at One Unit Chowk on Thursday. The officials only just managed to get away. 

Tehsil Regulation Officer Pervaz Ahmad Jutt accompanied by TMA City Officials Sajjid Hussain, Syed Azhar Hussain and Land Inspector Muhammad Mustaqeem among others had arrived at One Unit Chowk on Tuesday to clear it of encroachments at the chowk and Rafi Qamar Road. They had loaded makeshift stalls set up in front of shops onto tractor trolleys and were about to leave the market when almost 50 shopkeepers stopped them. They beat up the officials with sticks and hurled stones at them. One of the stones cracked the windscreen of the vehicle they had arrived in. The shopkeepers then unloaded the tractor trolleys.

A TMA official who was part of the operation said they had had to flee from the area to avoid getting seriously injured. 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13^th, 2015.